


The Importance of a Well Stocked Medicine Cabinet

by overratedantihero



Category: DCU (Comics), Green Lantern (Comics), Justice League - All Media Types, The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Established Relationship, Flu, M/M, barry looks out for him, hal gets sick, obligatory sick fic, sick day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-23
Updated: 2017-05-23
Packaged: 2018-11-04 01:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10980168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/overratedantihero/pseuds/overratedantihero
Summary: Hal gets sick and Barry realizes that his super healing has left him super unprepared to take care of him.





	The Importance of a Well Stocked Medicine Cabinet

**Author's Note:**

> Are sick fics still a thing? Because I absolutely love sick fics.

Barry Allen hadn’t been sick in a long time. He couldn’t get sick anymore, not with his metabolism and healing. Although his medicine cabinet had initially retained its stock in the years following his tangle with lightning, he’d steadily given most of his medicine away to friends and coworkers and the rest had expired. He didn’t think much of it. He spent most of his time with metahumans or people like Bruce, who was stoic enough to hide his illnesses and taken care of by Alfred and covered by his plethora of children in the event of illness.  

Thus, he was wholly unprepared when he woke up to find Hal shivering against him, despite the burning heat emanating from Hal’s skin. Barry frowned and tried to pull away so that he could catch a better look, but Hal only burrowed closer.

“Cold. Stay put,” Hal muttered, which only deepened Barry’s frown.

“You’re burning up, Hal,” Barry said, lowering his voice in what he hoped was soothing rather than patronizing. “I need to take you temperature.” Barry wasn’t sure he even owned a thermometer. He wondered how long it would take to get to the nearest pharmacy and back—he wasn’t about to rob a CVS, but he didn’t want to leave Hal alone for long. Maybe if he planned ahead by checking prices online he could leave the exact amount of money on the counter before anyone could blink—and run the risk of throwing off their inventory. Barry didn’t want to ruin an employee’s day just because he, a grown man, didn’t think to keep _something_ in the cabinet in the very likely event that his space-cop-but-still-human boyfriend got sick. While he mulled, Hal began stirring with more gusto. Which, in his state, wasn’t a whole lot of gusto.

“’M fine, Barr,” Hal muttered. “Turn the heater on, though?”

Barry wracked his brain, trying to remember how to treat chills. “No, can’t do that,” he murmured, more to himself than Hal. “Heater’s not good for your fever.” Barry had no doubt Hal had a fever, his skin was far too hot for him to not have one. But he needed a thermometer or something to figure out if he needed to take Hal to the doctor or not. Did Hal have health insurance? Hal definitely didn’t have health insurance.

Hal tried to sit up, probably to protest, but his eyes glassed over and he fell back onto the bed with a little _ooph_. It would have been cute if Barry was kicking himself for not having a thermometer.

“Feel like I went a round with Kilowog,” Hal groaned, curling up on himself. Barry rubbed his back.

“I need to add you to my health insurance,” Barry said.

“What?” Hal groaned.

“Nothing. You said you feel like you fought Kilowog? Are you sore? How’s your head? Did you get this season’s flu shot?” Barry knew he was talking too fast, but he was worried and _why the hell didn’t he at least keep a thermometer around_ , Hal was still human no matter how many aliens, monsters, and supervillains he could fight.

Hal just groaned pitifully at Barry’s barrage of questions. That did it. Barry crawled out of bed and stripped the comforter away, tucking Hal under only the sheet.

“Stay put. I’m going to go get you a glass of water. You’re going to drink all of the water, okay?” Barry said, leaving. He returned within the span of a blink, glass of water in hand. A second later some of the water that had sloshed out of the glass while he ran hit the ground.

“Who died and made you Aquaman,” Hal rasped belligerently. Hal being able to quip was good, Hal’s fever couldn’t be _that_ high if he could quip… right? Barry shook his head to clear it before bringing the water to Hal.

“Drink. No one died, Arthur is alive and well and he lives in the ocean, which you shouldn’t drink since 3.5% of the ocean’s weight is salt.”

Hal blinks. “That’s why Arthur’s so salty,” he murmured into his glass. Barry grinned. The grin slid off his face when Hal began coughing into his water.

“Easy,” Barry murmured. “Cough and then drink.”

Hal shot him a glare but did as he was told, pulling the glass away to cough into his elbow like a gentleman. Barry worried his lower lip. A cough and chills and a fever and muscle aches meant flu, right? He tried to remember what it felt like to have the flu as a kid, but it had been so long and he had lived in a house with a fully stocked medicine cabinet. He needed to at least pick up some Tylenol. Maybe Nyquil. He would like to see Hal on Nyquil.

“I need to get you some medicine. Are you going to be okay on your own, or should I call someone?”

Hal pulled away from glass (which was mostly drained, to Hal’s credit) to say, “I don’t think I’m physically capable of dying.”

Barry called John.

“He’s only been kind of belligerent, which is part of the reason why I’m worried,” Barry explained as he grabbed his keys and searched for his cardigan. John chuckled, arms crossed as he watched Barry fret about the apartment. “He’s not allowed to have the heater on or the comforter, and he keeps insulting Arthur when he has to drink water, I’ve hid all of the communicators so that he doesn’t call Arthur or Bruce or anyone while fever drunk. Thank you for watching him while I’m out, I swear I’ll be back in a—”

“ _Flash_ , I’ve got this,” John said, uncrossing his arms. “Go ahead and get to the store. Consider Jordan handled.”

Barry shot him one more grateful glance before tapping into the speedforce and disappearing in a crackle of electricity.

John didn’t have to turn around to register Hal standing in a nearby doorway. Hal’s eyes were unfocused and he was standing in nothing but his boxers, with his and Barry’s comforter draped over his shoulders. His hair stuck out every which way, with what appeared to be leftover product from the day before keeping it spiky. His complexion was pale with red dusting his cheekbones and nose and he was hugging an empty glass close to his chest.

“Get back to bed, Hal,” John said over his shoulder.

“Have you seen my comm?” Hal rasped. “I need to see a man about a fish.”

John rubbed the bridge of his nose.

 ***

Barry stood in the aisle of CVS, one hand clutching a paper with recommended medicines and the other a basket already filled with Gatorade, throat lozenges, Nyquil, Tylenol, vapor rub, canned soup, and herbal tea. He was comparing three different thermometers when an employee poked his head around the corner.

“We have neti pots on Aisle 7,” the employee recommended, glancing at Barry’s basket. Barry shook his head.

“I think he would literally kill me before he let me irrigate his nasal passages,” Barry said, settling on a thermometer, and tossing it in his basket. “Or at least punch me.” Barry didn’t think Hal would actually punch him on purpose. But the idea of wrestling Hal down long enough to use a neti pot left Barry feeling preemptively sore, fast healing aside.

“I don’t know how old ‘he’ is, but we have children’s sore throat lollipops on sale,” the employee offered instead. Barry beamed.

“That’ll do.”

Barry returned to the apartment with several bags in tow, satisfied that his medicine cabinet wouldn’t be so bare now. He opened the front door, and immediately had to dodge a light construct. Barry scrambled to get himself and the bags in the apartment, closing the door behind him.

“ _What_ are you two doing?” Barry dodged another beam of green light even as Hal shuffled towards Barry, wrapped in a sheet instead of the comforter from before.

Hal buried his face in the crook of Barry’s shoulder and mumbled in a voice so scratchy that it hurt to hear, “’M gonna fight the Justice League.”

Barry worked around Hal to fish out a lollipop. He unwrapped it and prodded Hal’s mouth with it until Hal parted his lips and accepted the offering. Placated for the time being, Hal leaned heavier against Barry and Barry raised an eyebrow at John, who materialized from around a corner.

“He wanted to fight Aquaman, so we sparred instead. I was trying to wear him out. I don’t think he can be worn out,” John admitted, shrugging. Hal made a pleased noise. “He did drink several glasses of water and he traded out the comforter he was wearing for the sheet when I prompted him to,” John offered.

“Thank you, John,” Barry murmured. “Do you want babysitting money now or later?” Hal punched Barry in the ribs, but there was no force behind it and Barry doubted Hal was physically capable of hitting harder than a tap for the time being. He stroked Hal’s hair and Hal relaxed again.

John snorted. “Don’t mention it. Feel better soon, Hal.”

Barry waved John out before gently rubbing Hal’s back. “Let’s get you back to bed, okay? I got you some stuff. I almost got you a neti pot.”

Hal crinkled his nose. “I don’t know what that is, but it sounds like grounds for divorce.”

“We’re not married,” Barry pointed out.

“I would have married you, just to divorce you then. And when asked for the cause, I would have looked the judge in the eyes and said neti pot. And then the judge would have sided with me and I would get all of your stuff.”

“What if I made you sign a prenup first?” Barry asked, guiding Hal back to the bed and tucking him in once they arrived there. “Ever think about that?”

Hal shook his head and then winced at his headache. Barry began assembling the lineup of medication. “I’d make that face I make at you when I want Ollie to stay the night to play video games,” he noted. “You always cave for the face. There wouldn’t be a prenup.”

Barry sighed dramatically. “You got me. Take these pills and then I definitely won’t make you sign a prenup. Although if you ever do plan to run a marriage scheme, I’d recommend you run it on Oliver. He has more assets to win in a divorce settlement.”

Hal gasped. “You are so smart,” he marveled. Barry rolled his eyes and helped Hal take the medicine.

“I know I am,” Barry said, popped the thermometer under Hal’s tongue before he could respond. Hal made faces at him and Barry laughed.

“Keep still!”

“Cab’t,” Hal murmured around the thermometer. “’Ur cu’e wheb you lath.”

The thermometer beeped. 102.1. Not ideal, but not dangerously high either. Barry would check it again in a few hours, after the fever reducers and cold medicine had time to kick in, and decide from there whether Hal’s probable-flu warranted a trip to the doctor. Hal was already yawning, and Barry used his superspeed to turn off the lights in the apartment and lock the front door before returning to Hal’s side.

“Sleep, and when you wake up we can plot the financial demise of Oliver Queen,” Barry promised. Hal smiled and let his head loll. Before crawling in next to him, Barry messaged the Justice League as well as Wally:

The Flash and Green Lantern were out of commission for the weekend.


End file.
